This Could Be Us cover art

This Could Be Us

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

This Could Be Us

By: Claire McGowan
Narrated by: Katherine Press, Oliver Hemborough, Thomas Josling
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 'So truthful and rewarding' Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series

'Brave, brilliantly structured, and beautifully written' Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us

Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating.

Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his.

Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reckon with what she did. The guilt and the love. The pain and the hope. In other words, family.

Following a fractured family over a period of twenty years, This Could Be Us is an extraordinarily moving story from bestselling author Claire McGowan.

'About halfway through this beautiful, expertly-stitched novel, I thought to myself, 'Every woman needs to read this book'; by the end, I thought, 'every human'. Moving, thought-provoking and profound, it's one of my favourite reads of the last few years' Louise Candlish, author of Our House

'The author's own experience of having a disabled sibling makes it an emotive read' Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month

'McGowan, an acclaimed writer of crime fiction, drew on her own family experience of caring for a disabled sibling to create a complex and ultimately forgiving story' Irish Times

'Captivating . . . A beautifully structured novel . . . As heart-warming as it is thought-provoking, the steady pace as the past slowly catches up to the present ensures you might be tempted to read just a few pages more, and more' Irish Independent©2023 Claire McGowan (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Marriage Resilience

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Let Me In cover art
To Be a Mother cover art
The Lost cover art
The Fall cover art
The Wedding Guest cover art
Are You Awake? cover art
What You Did cover art
The Night of the Sleepover cover art
The Inheritance cover art
Tell Me What I Am cover art
My Word Against His cover art
The Doctor's Wife cover art
Watermelon cover art
The Forgetting cover art
The Woman I Was Before cover art
Friends Like Us cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Having enjoyed reading other Claire McGowan books I was looking forward to this book but found it disappointing. I did finish it but was tempted to send it back several times. I found the story slow and lacking substance. Unfortunately I can’t recommend this book.

Disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book had so many layers about making decisions and how they shape the future. Very glad it wasn’t a situation I’ve experienced.

So much to consider…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it from begging to the end, and every bit inbetween. The way the characters evolve and have a purpose, and how the story follows very smoothly the life of 3 main protagonist across different timelines, and their experiences as they learn to cope with the aftermath of a having a disable child in their life. Spoiler: it does touch on the hardship of the pandemic, but just enough to support the decision of the characters. So I'll allow it, but might be triggering for some

The 3 narrators give it justice bringing it to life and making it easier to follow. Would deffo would have find it more difficult to follow in a physical format. Would listen to more books narrated by Catherine

kept me hooked from begging to the end

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just alright. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but I did manage to finish it at least!

Alright

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely absorbed this story. As a mother it's very thought provoking. Also fantastic narrators

Couldn't stop listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Its so important to have good narration and is so disappointibg when it isnt. Good narration can enhance the story but it suffers badly if the vouces dont work. The male voice in particular wasnt great here. The story was good but rather unbelievable in places and there were hardly any characters to like which isnt great. You kind of want to root for someone in the story but I didnt really like anyone by the end. It was a good discussion though in our book group as lots to think about

Interesting story,lots to think about

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very different from other books by Claire. This is a story about the impact of severe disabilities on family life. It is so much more than that, but you have to experience the novel yourself.

So powerful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.